a man on a rampage, walks into an aerobics class, turns och the lights and opens fire. a barrage of at least 36 bullets. three women killed in cold blood. then the gunman committed suicide. this hour, we'll talk to a young lady who witnessed the terror. what went on in that class. we'll hear her story, and how she survived it. plus, the final hours of an 8-year-old's boy life revealed. it breaks your heart. a little girl says she was playing on the swings with little robert manwill the night he vanished. the picture of childhood innocence. now one of them is dead. was she indeed the last to see him alive. you're a huge part of the show, call in, the number 1-877-tell-hln.

you can e-mail us at cnn.com/primenews. or text us at hlntv, just start your message with the word prime. it's your chance to be heard. welcome. this is "prime news." i'm mike galanos. what a story. enters an aerobics dance class, turns off the lights, doesn't say a word and starts firing. this happened at an l.a. fitness just outside of pittsburgh last night. three women in that class were shot and killed. nine others were hurt. that before the gunman killed himself. police say the man has been identified as george sed -- sodini. he was on a mission, hell-bent on shooting people. brought four handguns in a gym bag. left notes inside, talking about his hatred for women. he had blogged about his loneliness, rejection, growing rage. want to hear from you on this story, call in, 1-877-tell-hln

is the number. we want to start with jordan solomon. she witnessed the shooting. was in the class when it happened. and thankfully she's okay. jordan, we're so glad that you were able to get out alive. tell us what happened last night. >> well, i went to the classroom, and i just thought i was going to go for my first latin impact class. and i was sitting towards the back, or standing actually towards the back towards the door, and about 15 minutes into the class, a man walked in, looked like he was ready to work out. he had a sweatband on and everything. workout clothes. he brought a large black duffel bag. he set it down in the back of the room. kind of where i was standing. and he shuffled around for a little while. and then i thought nothing of it. other than this is a strange man who wanted to work out with a bunch of girls, which i didn't really understand. and a couple minutes later the lights went out. i wasn't sure if it was part of the routine, or the lights just,

you know, blew. but i guess 30 seconds later, he started firing. and i didn't -- i've never heard a gunshot before, other than on the television. and i turned around and saw him standing there holding the gun out towards the front of the room. i just ran. >> was it pitch black? or could you see somewhat of a silhouette, or make out that it was actually back him there firing? >> i could see the silhouette, because there's a big glass window where the door was. and so it was just like standing in a dark room, in broad daylight. >> so you run out of there. where did you go? obviously outside the classroom. did you just go as far and as fast as you could? >> yeah, well, i left the classroom, and i ran through the main lobby, where all the machines were. people were looking at me like i was insane, like what is this girl doing running out of here in shear terror. after that i turned around for a second and there was mobs of people coming after me, like running the way i was.

i just ran out the front door and into the parking lot. >> who was the first person you told what had happened? what was going on in there? >> i ran up to peter's place restaurant, which is like up in the parking lot. like up some stairs, out of the whole complex, where l.a. fitness was. and i ran in there and said call 911, lock all the doors there's a shooting at l.a. fitness. i think at that time people realized there was mayhem, because there were people frantically running out of the building. >> with these kinds of events, we hear the story many times, you might have experienced this, you're on adrenaline, just running, in survival mode. when did you stop and realize, let's face it, you could have been killed? >> well, i mean, i didn't even know what was going on really at the time when i left. this is a bad guy, get out of here. it probably hit me when i got up to -- into the parking lot and i saw people running out. i just thought to myself, this is a shooting.

we're in bridgeville, and nothing ever happens there. and i said, this is a shooting, i need to get farther away. i realized, this is terrible. then i started freaking out. >> i'm sure. i'm sure the emotions hit at that point. you left your purse there, so you had to go back to the gym, is that right? >> well, i did leave my purse there, and i was freaking out. because i didn't know if he was still at large, or if my address is in there, my phone, my i.d. i didn't know if he was going to get ahold of that. so i was pretty scared. my dad, i mean, he drove, i don't know, 120 miles an hour to get down to where i was. he wanted to go back there. so he called 911 again and said, you know, my daughter was in the shooting. i need to get her purse. you know, is the scene secure. they said, well, go back to bob evans, that's where we're holding people that were there, we got to bob evans and they said, you need to go back to l.a. fitness. you need to be talked to from detectives. >> was it difficult to go back to the place where you had

witnessed such terror? >> it was. i mean, once i knew that he had committed suicide, and he was -- the scene was safe, it was a little bit better. but just the fact that half an hour ago i could have been dead here. it scared me. >> will you ever go back there? >> no. definitely not. >> again, jordan, thanks for telling your story. a couple more and we'll let you go. do you see his face now? do you remember, was he -- did he look menacing? did he look like someone who could do what he did? >> at first i saw him and i was like, maybe he's just another man. my mom told me she worked out next to him in classes before. and he just looked like another guy at the gym. but i mean, once i realized that when he was standing there with a gun, i got a whole different picture of him. >> but your mom recognized him, had worked out with him? >> yes, she had. she said she's even talked to him before. but he was always the only man in the all-girl aerobics classes. >> jordan solomon, we're so

thankful that you're alive and well to tell your story. by the way, you've done it very well. thank you for your time. and lending your insights on that ill fated day. thanks again. >> i want to bring in andrew, pittsburgh tribune review reporter. andrew, we'll hit you with a couple questions and take a break and have more on the other side. tell us about the condition of the others wounded. were there nine others shot? >> right now everything seems to be pretty stable. the police went in, and the people that came out of this, it seems like everything's -- they're doing pretty well at this point. >> let's leave it there. dr. jeff gardere, he's with us as well. we'll analyze some of the blog entries, talk about what we know. delve into motive here. and we'll take your calls, the number 1-877-tell-hln.

i remember thinking, i wanted to hold my breath. because i was afraid if he saw that i was breathing, he would shoot again. >> you can hear the terror. that was the instructor of the latin impact class in the aerobics room where george sodini went into the classroom, shut off the lights and opened fire. 36 bullets fired. nine people shot. three women dead. then he turned the gun on himself. we're taking your calls. we have our experts standing by. let's bring back andrew, from the pittsburgh tribune review reporter. andrew, i want to look at one of his blog entries.

make sure it was well polished. work out every detail. there is only one shot. he practiced this. he was at that gym how many times on the ill-fated day, like yesterday? >> that's the frightening thing about this. when you talk to the fbi experts, they say this is basically a guy who came out of nowhere, appeared to come out of nowhere. even on his blog he talks about how, you know, people look at me and think i'm normal. they see me smiling. they think i'm interacting with people. beneath the surface was this layer, this undercurrent of despair and anger and fear. and sort of carrying through. if you read through all of his writings, you see this was a guy who had a lot of troubling issues. but on the surface appeared to be okay. >> let's bring in our clinical psychologist, dr. jeff gardere. we want to know motive. but as andrew points out, number one thing in his blog seems to be a hatred for women. hadn't had a girlfriend since '84. hadn't had sex since '91. >> all of that is because of the kind of personality that he had.

he might have seemed normal. you guessed this right, he might have seemed normal to a lot of people. but once you got to know this guy, you realized that this is a guy who did not see things the way other people do, who probably had a lot of anger, who was easily irritated, who was just really an odd guy. from what we're finding out, mike, this is an individual who a couple years ago just stopped talking to his neighbors, and they knew him as a recluse. the other thing we do know is that this is a guy from his blogs who not only hated women, but he hated his father. he hated his family. he felt, as we see with many shooters, that the world was out to get him. and he had gotten a raw deal. >> yeah. you know, you mentioned the blog. i want to check out another entry real quick here. this is this past january, p.m. the loaded guns,

andrew, i mean, he had been planning this for months. >> yeah, it's amazing. to me that was the most chilling things. listening to jordan talk earlier, pittsburgh is a big city, but it's also a small community. this is a gym where my wife works out actually and this is one of her favorite classes. she was going there all winter president the other thing disturbing about it, you look at his journal and he said he thought about carrying this out in september, and he wanted to wait around and see how the election turned out, see if obama could pull this off. he writes around christmas that i'm really glad that i waited. that i didn't do this yet, because i'm feeling so good this week. i'm glad that i'm here, that i'm alive. but he keeps writing and says, but i feel like it's not going to last. i know i'm going to feel bad again and i'm going to have to go forward. >> jeff, hang tight. i'll get to you in a sec. i want to hit on andrew one more. could this have been stopped, andrew? >> from what we know now, he put this up right before he went out and did the killing spree yesterday.

it wasn't a blog that people could have followed it all along. >> thanks for clarifying that. you mentioned the dates. jeff, i want to hit on the blog here. confidence. here, flying so lo is a destroyer. what do you make of that, jeff? >> this is a guy who i really think was a schiz oh personality. unlike a schizophrenic who has auditory and visual hallucinations, he didn't have that. that's why he was able to be out amongst other people and seem swat normal. he had a lot of magical thinking, was not logical, and could take a little fact and bend it and twist it into his own warped reality. >> let's get a call in real quick. angie is with us in ohio. your thoughts here? >> caller: hi, how are you? >> go ahead, angie. >> caller: i basically wanted to touch on, did anybody come forward yet stating that they

dated him prior to this incident? you know, this -- i'm sorry, describing his personality? >> great question there, angie. it sounds like we've got to go way back. he said in his blogs he hasn't had a girlfriend since '84. that was why he was so mad. women weren't interested in him. >> yeah, a long, long time ago. one of the confusing things was last night one of the victims that was carried out, one of the guys who carried her out said, you know, this girl was crying, he's going to get me. she was referring to him like he had been her ex boyfriend. and it doesn't seem like that was true at all, this guy was just on his own. maybe in some ways he perceived these women, anyone who paid him attention, maybe they perceived, oh, this person's interested in me. when he found out they weren't that interested in him, he got really angry. >> that's a very important point. you have to take anything that he writes with a grain of salt. because again, we're dealing with his own warped reality. so even if he says he hasn't had a girlfriend in years and years,

it's quite possible there may have been some female liaisons. the other thing is i'm surprised the way he talked about women, and the acts, i won't even mention the names, that he did when he used to look at these women. i'm surprised that he may not have a record for some sort of sexual assaults. and that's -- and to me, that's a very fascinating thing, that he didn't turn out to become a rapist. even worse, this serial shooter. >> exactly. we'll have to leave it there. jeff, andrew, we appreciate it. we'll update you on the robert manwill story, the 8-year-old's last hours. somewhat revealed. a little girl says she saw him, played with him at the playground. they were both swinging on the swings together. the picture of innocence, now we know that little guy is dead.

this skrust in. moments ago in los angeles, singer chris brown arrived for

his sentencing. he was charged again with beating his girlfriend, then girlfriend rihanna. previously we knew reached a plea deal with the prosecutors. probation, domestic violence counseling and community service. we'll have more on this case in just a little bit. when all that becomes official. now this. heartbreaking new developments in the case of an 8-year-old boy found dead in an irrigation canal near boise, idaho. little girl, just 7 years old, says she was playing outside with little robert manwill the night he disappeared, july 24th. she was on a green swing, he was on a red one. get that picture. it's the picture of childhood, summertime innocence, just swinging on a swing. how do we get from that to finding one of these little kids dead. we'll take your calls, 1-877-tell-hln is the number. joining us again to talk about it, steve rogers, former member of the fbi joint terrorism tax force. and the new jersey police department. joining us by phone, gren hahn,

local news editor of the idaho statesman. greg, let's talk about reports that this limit girl saw him. they played together on the swings. what's the time frame of that? when did she actually play with him on the swings in the playground there? >> this little girl's memory seems to be pretty good. thinks it was between 7:00, 7:30. that is what we imagine now was the first report coming from police. or coming from her and her family that he had been seen there on the playground. of course, things have really changed a lot that night. we know he wasn't reporting missing until after 10:00. >> right. let me hit on that with you again, greg. the time frame, i mean, who was definitively the last person to see him? and at what time? >> the last person that we know about is this little girl. and she sat on the swings with him. she said he got off the swing and went to the playground motorcycle, and pretended to ride, and she went home and he went home.

her family said she got home about 7:30. police know more, they haven't told us. >> steve, how does what this little 7-year-old say fit into the investigation? what do you do with it if you're the investigator in this case? >> very critical information this young girl gave the police. we have the young victim on the swing going home. what happened after he arrived at home. that's the question police are going to need to answer. >> we're going to take a quick break on that. when we come back, more reporting from the idaho statesmen about where was mom, where was robert manwill's mom when he went missing. who was in charge of this little guy. we'll take your calls on this one as well, the number 1-877-tell-hln.

welcome back to "prime news" on hln. all right, could you ever say no to a cute little baby, a baby that cute? a fast food manager did, because little baby didn't have shoes on. i'm taking it here the manager of the burger king took the no shoes, no shirt, no service line a little too far. a 6-month-old, you're going to boot them out because baby doesn't have shoes on. unbelievable. we'll take your calls calls on this one a little later, 1-877-tell-hln. new today, a nervous george anthony questioned under oath about his granddaughter's murder. little caylee anthony found dead near his home back in december. his only daughter, casey, behind bars, charged with first-degree murder, faces the death penalty.

now it is up to dad to tell his side of the story. he hasn't seen his daughter in months. it would be hard to keep his emotions in check during this deposition. george anthony, he's been through hell through all of this. we'll take your calls, 1-877-tell-hln. here to talk about it, once again, mark eiglarsh, former prosecutor. and another defense attorney. george anthony is letting it out there he's nervous about this. it's going to be difficult. we know george anthony had at one point contemplated suicide. with all that said, how is he going to hold up in there? what are you seeing from george? >> it's going to be a different dynamic. he resented the civil lawsuit brought by that firm, you know, that claimed that zanny was defamed. both him and cindy resented the attorneys. they resented the lawsuit, they hated being there.

this is a little different different. they have to find out what they know. they know they're going to be witnesses. and so i think it's going to go very differently. the same way cindy and lee's depositions went. i think he'll go the same way, calm, answering questions and normal. >> since you mentioned it, we have a clip cut, this is george anthony during the civil suit, filed by zenaida gonzalez. let's watch george anthony again. we'll say it was tense, at the least. let's give it a watch. >> i've already answered everything about this lady right here. and i've done it in the best possible way i can. i've told you this is not the lady that my daughter described to me. so we can end this right now. this is -- you're just fishing, sir. you're fishing for information for a criminal investigation. and you have nothing to do with. >> you see george anthony, holding it wack back, he's tense. if you're questioning, you're a state attorney questioning george anthony, do you play on his emotions to take advantage of him a little bit?

how are you going to approach him? >> you always do. at this point, though, however, you have to remember that he's not the person accused of any wrongdoing. so you ought to be very careful. but whenever you're questioning someone in a deposition, you use what is available to you as a strength. if emotion is at play here, you go for it. >> mark, what's the key piece of information you're really going to burrow in on with george anthony? >> the first is he smelled death in that vehicle. i would say to him, when you told law enforcement that for sure that was the smell of death, let's talk about how you know that. and let them go into detail of how he's a former law enforcement officer. he knows that smell. in a case of defense, they will attack the scientific evidence claiming, no, no, that could have been some other smell. that's going to be key amongst other issues. >> i want you to comment on it, but let's first listen to that. mark set it up for us, george anthony talking to investigators about the smell of death in the car casey was driving.

>> that is a huge, huge piece of information, i would think, for prosecution. how do you argue that if you're the defense? not only did george say it, cindy said it in a 911 call. >> it's difficult to argue as a defense. you don't ignore it. it's there and you work with it. as the other guest said, the smell of death is not something that the average person would know what that is. so the fact that he was able to readily identify that based on his experience, on his career, it's something that the defense attorney is just not going to be able to walk away from. what you do is work with that. >> on the other side, mike, what they're going to try to do is establish what he's going to be offering the defense team and kind of narrow him down. what he offers is the claim that

zanny was discussed in the household, that there really was a zanny the nanny, contrary to what law enforcement said. he's going to go through and say this is how my daughter described her to be, 125 to 135 pounds, 5'7". that's what they'll bring to the table. they'll want to nail them down on that. >> we know with cindy, it was 13 hours of questioning, lee, 9. we'll see how long george anthony's in the hot seat, we'll continue to follow it. we appreciate it. thanks, guys. coming up, this story. we want you to dive in on it. we're talking about feet. baby feet. a fast-food manager kicked out a mom and a cute little baby because baby didn't have shoes on? 6-month-old doesn't even walk yet. there's no funk yet. everybody loves baby feet. call in, 1-877-tell-hln.

two women, thankfully back with their families on u.s. soil today. american journalists held in a north korean prison for five months. they described the ordeal as the most difficult, heart wremplging days of their lives. we bring in richelle carey with more on this emotional home coming. it was emotional to watch, richelle. >> it was, mike. it was. it really was a team of people basically. but former president bill clinton was the person who actually secured the release of euna lee and laura ling. the two journalists were working on a story when soldiers arrested them near the border of

north korea and china. and they lived in fear. every single day. >> 30 hours ago euna lee and i were prisoners in north korea. we feared that at any moment we could be sent to a hard labor camp. and then suddenly we were told that we were going to a meeting. we were taken to a location, and when we walked in through the doors, we saw standing before us president bill clinton. [ applause ] >> i don't think any of us can imagine what they felt. president clinton had flown to north korea to talk to the leader kim jong-il.

after the meeting the two women were granted a pardon. their families met them at the airport this morning. there's the pictures that tell the story. lee had a tearful reunion right there with her husband and her cute 4-year-old daughter, hannah. ling says when she saw president clinton, she instantly knew the nightmare of their lives was finally coming to an end. there you have it, mike. >> just such raw emotion. something to watch today. >> it was. >> great big finish to that. richelle, thanks. this next story, flipping the deck here on you. this is ridiculous. a cute baby, booted from a burger king in missouri. little baby is $6 million. look at her. precious. mom says the restaurant manager threatened to call the cops because, get this, the baby was not wearing shoes. keep in mind the 6-month-old can't walk, can't crawl. too young to really get the feet dirty. listen to how the mom explained how this feet fiasco went down. >> the manager was standing next

to me, you can order to go but you're going to have to leave if she doesn't have shoes on. it's against health cold. if you're going to go to burger king, put some shoes on your baby or go somewhere else. >> are you kidding me? everybody loves cute baby feet. they're awesome. there's no stench, no funk. you just squeeze them. it's part of just loving on a little baby. this one's unbelievable. call in with your thoughts, 1-877-tell-hln's the number. joining us again, defense attorney, former prosecutor, mike eiglarsh. this manager just took the no shoes, no shirt, no service deal way too far, huh, mark? >> mike, there are two sides to every issue. and on one side, you've got those like yourself who passionately believe that he went too far. he didn't interpret the policy correctly. and on the other side of the issue, mike, there is no other side of the issue, mike. he's an idiot. this guy is just a moron. i say to him, have it your way,

buddy. but not in customer service. it just doesn't make any sense. >> you and i will argue just about anything. >> you thought i was going to go on the other side. no way. >> that's good. a lot of folks want to dive in, franchise is retraining his that. >> do you think? >> furthermore, the franchise is also contacting the guest to apologize. i believe they've invited them back. little late on that. let's get some phone calls in. kathy is with us from louisiana. your thoughts here? >> caller: yes. >> go ahead, kathy. >> caller: i think the manager was way off base. you know, if he thinks feet funk is the problem, it's not. it's the insurance wants to -- doesn't want to cover any injury if a customer doesn't wear shoes. obviously a 6-month-old wouldn't be walking. i wouldn't let my 6-month-old on

a floor of a restaurant. you know, i think it's a matter of he needs to be retrained. >> it's ridiculous, to say the least. kelly, from north carolina, go ahead. >> caller: i've got a comment. i think that's a little absurd. i've got a 4-year-old myself, and children have a tendency to want to take off their shoes when they go somewhere. maybe she took the shoes off and the mother kept them. what in their right mind of a human being would do something like this. this is insane. does the law allow you to do this to children? this is just insane to me. >> we've got parents upset on this one, mark. does the family have any recourse, or i guess technically that's their policy, right? or is there something they can do? >> there's nothing they can do. but it's crazy to think this manager somehow would let a herd of crack addicts who are filthy and disgusting who have

something that arguably are considered shoes to come in before they let this beautiful baby nibble on a french fry in their place. e-mail from jena. obviously the guy doesn't have children. have you tried to put shoes on an infant? if you're successful with that adventure, how about keeping the shoes on the infant? or socks for that matter. mark, we've both been there. the shoes are all over the restaurant, the socks, too. >> but when you start putting socks on the 6-month-old, and that's not sufficient. he said, i'm going to call the police, still, this guy should stay off of anything that has to do with customer service. he's not very smart. >> not a strong suit. another call, arianna in pennsylvania. go ahead. >> caller: actually, you guys have hit on a lot of points that i was thinking, which is, you know, you don't want anybody to step on glass. there's lawsuits there. a 6-month-old baby can barely sit up straight. they're either on your back in a backpack, in an infant carrier

or sitting in a high chair. i think this guy in his own little world wants to be the hero and play the good guy, look what i did, i followed the rules. he made an idiot out of himself and burger king. >> horrible pr for them, let's face it. we're all chiming in. we're all on the same side on this one obviously. mark, always good talking to you. thanks so much. coming up, huge news for all you "american idol" fans. paula abdul, she's leaving the show. paula, gone. how is the show going to go on? call in, 1-877-tell-hln.

if you're an "american idol" fan, and there's millions of you out there, you can't be happy about this. paula abdul is leaching the show after eight seasons. she broke the news on twitter late last night.

she's been on "idol" since day one. good versus evil, paula versus simon. that's part of what you want to watch. these two going at it a little bit. that's all gone. and even host ryan seacrest was taken aback by it. let's give that a listen. >> so, the news that paula abdul is leaving "american idol," stunned me last night. i was shocked. i read about it. let me walk you through what i know. and, you know, she's a dear friend. i love her to death. and really sad that it's come to fruition. that she released that statement on twitter. and that fox released that statement. i'm bummed. we've worked together for years. all of us have. if you were to talk to randy or simon, they would say the same thing. it's sad. it bums us out. it's not great. >> it is not great. but some people speculating, it's just a pr move. a tactic to get more money, negotiation ploy. what do you think? is this for real? call in, the number 1-877-tell-hln.

will the show be the same without her? joining me to talk about it, russell, entertainment reporter, legal analyst, popentire.com. is this real or do you think this is just negotiations? >> well, if it's not real, it's a negotiation gone kind of poorly, because fox pretty quickly after paula twittered saying she quit, issued a statement saying basically saying, we're sorry to see her go. if it was an attempt to negotiate further, she put their backs against the wall and it may not have worked. >> all right. so if she's out of there, what happens to the show? is it just simon, randy and cara? >> of course, they can replace people if they want. they can add a fourth judge. that fourth judge, it wasn't such a great idea last year. a lot of people complained about it. there was a lot of speculation as to whether paula or cara would go. now we know the answer. we'll have to see what they end up doing. >> i want to hear from you, call in, 1-877-tell-hln, as we have a light-hearted story to deal with. that's a refreshing change.

russell, i mean, personally, cara's fine. but she can't carry it. paula and simon have the chemistry. she's all chemistry. she's all flowery. he's darth vader. i want to see that. kara dioguardi can't cut that. >> for eight rears, mike, we've seen paula abdul give us a lot of entertainment. with her dolphin clap and talking about the colors in people's voices and sometimes not being able to finish sentences. but at the end of the day she was the heart of the show and she made us wonder what was in that little red cup sitting on the judge's counter. >> good point there. well, let's talk about replacements. there was one report i read that j. lo, jennifer lopez, might be interested. true or false? and anybody else you could see filling her role? >> well, that's an unconfirmed rumor. but certainly that would be a lot of fun. to have j. lo, that kind of superstar power. i don't see that really being something she would do with her career. you know, paula abdul was someone who was big more than a decade ago. jennifer lopez is still in many respects in the prime of her career. so it doesn't necessarily seem

like a move that she would make. but that certainly would be a lot of fun. >> do they need a pop star or someone who was the pop star like a paula? a performer? >> well, you've got to have some credibility. of course randy jackson likes to drop names and talk about all the people he's worked with. so you do have that credibility. and kara has a lot of credibility in her own right as a songwriter. but rg pahaving paula abdul thes a pob star was something that drew people in, especially in the first season when they sang her songs. it was a great tribute. >> yeah. >> so it would be a great idea. but to follow up with another pop star, that person has some big and very entertaining shoes to fill. >> yeah. exactly. you never knew what she was going to say. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back, we'll hear from former "idol" contestants. want to hear from you. 1-877-tell-hln is the number. and what about the money? was paula mad in was she not getting paid enough? that and more coming up.

a man on a rampage walks into an aerobics class, turns off the light, opens fire. a barrage of 36 bullets. three women killed in cold blood. then the gunman committed suicide. this hour we'll talk to a young lady who witnessed the terror. what went on in that class. we'll hear her story and how she survived it. plus, the final hours of an 8-year-old boy's life revealed. it breaks your heart. a little girl says she was playing on the swings with little robert manwill the night he vanished. the picture of childhood innocence. now one of them is dead. was she indeed the last to see him alive? you're a huge part of the show. we love hearing from you. call in.

the number 1-877-tell-hln. you can e-mail us at cnn.com/primenews or text us at hlntv. just start your message with the word "prime." controversy, opinion, your point of view. this is "prime news." welcome. this is "prime news." i'm mike galanos. what a story. the picture of sheer terror. a man enters an aerobic dance class, turns off the lights, doesn't say a word, and then starts firing. this happened at an l.a. fitness just outside of pittsburgh last night. three women in that class were shot and killed. nine others were hurt. that before the gunman killed himself. now, the police say the man has been identified as george sodini. 48 years old, a member of that gym. he was on a mission, hellbent on shooting people, brought four handguns in a gym bag, left notes inside, talking about his hatred for women. he had blogged about his loneliness, rejection, growing rage. want to hear from you on this

story. call in. 1-877-tell-hln is the number. and we want to start with jordan solomon. she witnessed the shooting, was in the class when it happened. and thankfully, she's okay. jordan, we're so glad that you were able to get out alive. tell us what happened last night. >> well, i went to the classroom, and i just thought i was going to go for my first latin impact class and i was sitting toward the back, or standing actually toward the back. toward the door. and about 15 minutes into the class a man walked in, looked like he was ready to work out. he had a sweatband on and everything. workout clothes. and he brought a large black duffel bag and he set it down in the back of the room, kind of like where i was standing. and he shuffled around for a little while, and then i thought nothing of it other than this is a strange man who wanted to work out with a bunch of girls, which i didn't really understand. and a couple minutes later all the lights went out.

and i wasn't sure if it was part of the routine or the lights just blew. but i guess 30 seconds later he started firing. and i didn't -- i've never heard a gunshot before other than on the television. and i turned around, and i saw him standing there, holding the gun out towards the front of the room. and i just ran. >> was it pitch black or could you see somewhat of a silhouette or make out that it was actually him back there firing? >> i could see the silhouette because there's a big glass window where the door was, and so it was just like standing in a dark room in broad daylight. >> so you ran out of there. where did you go? obviously outside the classroom. did you go as far and as fast as you could? >> yeah, well, i left the classroom and i ran through the main lobby where all of like the machines were, and people were looking at me like i was insane, like what is this girl doing running out of here in sheer terror? and i guess after that i turned around for a second and there was mobs of people just coming after me, like running the way i

was. and i just ran out the front door and into the parking lot. >> who was the first person you told what had happened? what was going on in there. >> i ran up to peter's place restaurant, which is like up in the parking lot. like up some stairs from the whole complex where l.a. fitness is. and i ran in there and said call 911, lock all the doors, there's a shooting at l.a. fitness. and by that time people realized there's some mayhem obviously because there were people frantically running out of the building. >> wow. so you -- with these kind of events we heard the story many times that people -- you might have experienced this. you're on adrenaline. you're just running. you're in survival mode. when did you stop and realize, let's face, it you could have been killed? >> well, i didn't even know what was going on really at the time when i left. i just thought this is bad, i've got to get out of here. it probably hit me when i got into the parking lot and i saw people running out and i just thought to myself this is a

shooting, we're in bridgeville and nothing ever happens there. and i said this is a shooting, i need to get farther away. and then i realized this is terrible. and then i started freaking out. >> i'm sure. i'm sure the emotions hit at that point. you left your purse there. so you had to go back to the gym, is that right? >> well, i did leave my purse there. and i was freaking out because i didn't know if he was still at large or if he -- my address is in there, my phone. my i.d. i didn't know if he was going to get a hold of that. so i was pretty scared. and my dad, i mean, he drove -- i don't even -- 120 mile an hour to get down to where i was. and he wanted to go back there. so he called 911 again and said, you know, my daughter was in a shooting, i need to get her purse, you know, is the scene secure. and they said, well, go back to bob evans. that's where we're holding people that were there. and then we got to bob evans and they said, well, you need to go back to l.a. fitness, you need to be talked to from detectives. >> was it difficult to go back

to the place where you'd witnessed such terror? >> it was. i mean, once i knew that he had committed suicide and he was -- the scene was safe, it was a little bit better. but just the fact that half an hour ago i could have been dead here, it scared me. >> will you ever go back there? >> tho. definitely not. >> thanks for telling your story. a couple more and i'll let you go. do you see his face now? do you remember, was he -- did he look menacing? did he look like someone who could do what he did? >> at first i saw him and i was like, maybe he's just another man. my mom told me she worked out next to him in classes before. and, i mean, he just looked like another guy at the gym. but i mean, once i realized that when he was standing there with a gun, i got a whole different picture of him. >> but your mom recognized him, had worked out with him? >> yes, she had. she said she's even talked to him before. but he was always the only man in all-girl aerobics classes. >> jordan solomon, we're so

thankful that you're alive and well to tell your story. by the way, you've done it very well. thank you for your time. and lending your insights on what happened on that ill-fated day. thanks again. i want to bring in andrew carnie, "pittsburgh tribune review" reporter. andrew, we'll hit you with a couple questions and take a break and have more on the other side. tell us about the condition of the others wounded. were there nine others shot? >> right now everything seems to be pretty stable. the police went in, and the people that came out of this, it seems like everything's -- they're doing pretty well at this point. >> let's leave it there. dr. jeff gardere, clinical psychologist, he's with us as well. we'll analyze some of the blog entries, talk about what we know. delve into motive here. and we'll take your calls, the number 1-877-tell-hln.

i remember thinking, i wanted to hold my breath. because i was afraid if he saw that i was breathing he would shoot again. >> you can hear the terror. that was the instructor of the latin impact class in the aerobics room where george sodini went into the classroom, shut off the lights and opened fire. 36 bullets fired. nine people shot. three women dead. then he turned the gun on himself. we're taking your calls. we have our experts standing by. let's bring back andrew, from the "pittsburgh tribune review." andrew, i want to look at one of his blog entries.

monday and tomorrow to practice my routine, and to make sure it i need to work out every detail. there is only one shot." he practiced this. he was at that gym how many times on the ill-fated day, yesterday? >> that's the frightening thing about this. when you talk to the fbi experts, they say this is basically a guy who came out of nowhere, appeared to come out of nowhere. even on his blog he talks about how, you know, people look at me and think i'm normal. they see me smiling, they think i'm interacting with people, and beneath the surface was this layer, this undercurrent of despair and anger and fear. and sort of carrying through. if you read through all of his writings, you see this was a guy who had a lot of troubling issues. but on the surface appeared to be okay. >> let's bring in our clinical psychologist, dr. jeff gardere. jeff, we want to know motive. but as andrew points out, you read his blog, and number one, seems to be a hatred for women. hadn't had a girlfriend since '84. said he hadn't had sex since '91.

>> all of that is because of the kind of personality that he had. he might have seemed normal. you guessed this right, he might have seemed normal to a lot of people. but once you got to know this guy, you realized that this is a guy who did not see things the way other people do, who probably had a lot of anger, who was easily irritated, who was just really an odd guy. and from what we're finding out, mike, this is an individual who a couple years ago just stopped talking to his neighbors, and they knew him as a recluse. the other thing we do know is that this is a guy, from his blogs, who not only hated women, but he hated his father. he hated his family. he felt, as we see with many shooters, that the world was out to get him. and he had gotten a raw deal. >> yeah. you know, you mentioned the blog. i want to check out another entry real quick here. this is this past january, january 6th. puts in the blog, "it is 8:45 i brought the loaded guns,

everything." andrew, i mean, he had been planning this for months. >> yeah, it's amazing. to me that was the most chilling things. listening to jordan talk earlier, pittsburgh is a big city, but it's also a very small community. this is a gym where my wife goes to work out actually and this is one of her favorite classes. she was going there all winter. and the other thing disturbing about it, you look at his journal and he said he thought about carrying this out in september, and he wanted to wait around and see how the election turned out, see if obama could pull this off. then he writes like around christmas that, you know, i'm really glad that i waited, that i didn't do this yet because you know, i'm feeling so good this week, i'm glad that i'm here, that i'm alive. but -- and he keeps writing and he says, but i feel like it's not going to last. i know i'm going to feel bad again and i'm going to have to go forward with the -- >> jeff, hang tight. i'll get to you in a sec. i want to hit on andrew one more. people think did anyone read this blog? could this have been stopped, andrew? >> from what we know now, he just put this up right before he went out and did the killing spree yesterday.

it wasn't a blog that people could have followed it all along. >> thanks for clarifying that. you mentioned the dates. here, saying "30 million reading some of the highlights "a man needs a woman for confidence." and a quote here, "flying solo is a destroyer." what do you make of that, jeff? >> this is a guy who i really think was a schizoid personality. unlike a schizophrenic who has auditory and visual hallucinations, this guy didn't have that. that's why he was able to be out amongst other people and seem somewhat normal. but this is a guy who had a lot of magical thinking, was not very logical, and could take just a very little fact and bend it and twist it into his own warped reality. >> let's get a call in real quick. angie is with us in ohio. hi, angie. your thoughts here? >> caller: hi, how are you? >> go ahead, angie. >> caller: i basically wanted to touch on, did anybody come forward yet stating that they

dated him prior to this incident? you know, this -- i'm sorry, describing his personality? >> great question there, angie. it sounds like we've got to go way back. he's saying in his blogs he hasn't had a girlfriend since '84. and that's why he was so mad. women weren't interested in him. >> back in the early '80s. a long, long time ago. one of the confusing things was last night one of the victims that was carried out, one of the guys who carried her out said, you know, this girl was crying, "he's going to get me. he's going to get me." she was referring to him like he had been her ex-boyfriend. and it just turned out it doesn't seem like that was true at all, this guy was just on his own. maybe in some ways he perceived these women, anyone who paid him attention, maybe they perceived, oh, this person's interested in me. when he found out they weren't that interested in him, then he got really angry. you can tell from his writings. >> that's a very important point. you have to take anything that he writes with a grain of salt. because again, we're dealing with his own warped reality. so even if he says he hasn't had a girlfriend in years and years,

it's quite possible there may have been some female liaisons. the other thing is i'm surprised the way he talked about women, and the acts, i won't even mention the names, that he did when he used to look at these women, i'm surprised that he may not have a record for some sort of sexual assaults. and that's -- and to me, that's a very fascinating thing, that he didn't turn out to become a rapist. but even worse, this serial shooter. >> exactly. we'll have to leave it there. jeff, andrew, we appreciate it. coming up, we're going to update you on the robert manwill story. the 8-year-old's last hours. somewhat revealed. a little girl says she saw him, played with him at the playground. they were both swinging on the swings together. the picture of innocence, now we know that little guy is dead.

singer chris brown was inside a los angeles courtroom moments ago. the judge just agreed to

postpone the sentencing now until august 27th. the singer was charged with beating his then girlfriend rihanna and reached a plea deal that included probation, community service, domestic violence classes, but no jail time. i'll have much more on this with my colleague jane velez-mitchell. that's coming up just a little bit later in the show. now this. heartbreaking new developments in the case of an 8-year-old boy found dead in an irrigation canal near boise, idaho. little girl, just 7 years old, says she was playing outside with little robert manwill the night he disappeared, july 24th. she was on a green swing, he was on a red one. get that picture. it's the picture of childhood, summertime innocence, just swinging on a swing. how do we get from that to finding one of these little kids dead? we'll take your calls, 1-877-tell-hln is the number. joining us again to talk about it, steve rogers, former member of the fbi joint terrorism tax force.

he's also a detective lieutenant with the nutley, new jersey police department. joining us by phone, greg hahn, local news editor of "the idaho statesman." greg, let's talk about reports that this limit girl saw him. they played together on the swings. what's the time frame of that? when did she actually play with him on the swings in the playground there? >> this little girl's memory seems to be pretty good. thinks it was about -- between 7:00 and 7:30. and that was what we imagine now was the first report coming from police. or coming from her and her family that he had been seen there on the playground. of course, things have really changed a lot that night. we know he wasn't reported missing until after 10:00. >> right. let me hit on that with you again, greg. the time frame, i mean, who was definitively the last person to see him? and at what time? >> the last person that we know about is this little girl. and she sat on the swings with him. she said he got off the swing and went to one of those little

playground motorcycle you pretend to ride, and she went home and he went home. her family said she got home about 7:30. >> and -- go ahead. >> if police know more, they haven't told us. >> steve, how does what this little 7-year-old is saying fit into the investigation? what do you do with it if you're the investigator in this case? >> very critical information this young girl gave the police. now we have the young victim on a swing, going home. what happened after he arrived at home. that's the question police are going to need to answer. >> we're going to take a quick break on that. when we come back, more reporting from "the idaho statesman" about where was mom, where was robert manwill's mom when he went missing. who was in charge of this little guy. we'll take your calls on this one as well, the number 1-877-tell-hln.